Writing a good text can be a solitary activity or a team effort—what matters is that stories are told
From the height of my 16 years on this planet, I decided I wanted to study journalism for what I now recognize was the most misguided reason: I liked to read and write. Only many years later did I discover that I lacked a fundamental aspect for the profession: curiosity about what people don’t want to tell. The good reporter, after all, is the nosy one who doesn’t take no for an answer, who knows what questions to ask to extract information that even they themselves don’t know exists, and is convinced that there’s no such thing as being “excessively invasive.” Yes, I’m curious, but I prefer other people to do the dirty work of overstepping boundaries with the holders of stories. With me, if the person doesn’t want to talk, that’s fine, let’s move on to the next question (or story).
It took me a few years to understand that my greater enjoyment is in the form. To the point of finding banal stories incredibly interesting, just because they are beautifully told. I get truly excited over well-rounded, well-crafted texts, with the correct terms used precisely, navigating between subtleties and subtexts, preferably without any leftovers. If it can be told in 10 words, why use 10 lines? If it fits in two paragraphs, what’s the need to extend it over two pages? However, a well-written text devoid of ideas is almost nothing, just as poorly elaborated genius concepts are not much more than that.
Out of professional habit (since 2012 I have dedicated myself almost exclusively to working on texts written by other people—whether to translate them into another language, or to make them more fluent, clearer, with fewer errors), I joke that I no longer read, I revise and edit. Thus, my measure of the quality of a text is how much I can get through it without doing any of these things.
Having attended a few brief creative writing workshops, I understand that there is a technique that can be taught and learned. Still, I believe that the best way to learn to write clearly is to read and write a lot. If you believe you have a good story to tell, tell it! Write the way it comes out. In pencil, pen, on the computer, or in the notepad on your cell phone: write. Imagine how you would tell the story to a friend and turn the speech into text. And if you still don’t like the result, ask for help from someone who likes to read and values good stories. And who will be honest about what they read. In writing, the gaze of the other is essential to achieve excellence.
Cássia Zanon | texto, comunicação etc. 